15th June 2025 Question box

OK, so today we have a question about questions:

How do we discern what is useful to look into or learn within the Bible? Is it helpful to look into questions like: “what does heaven look like” or “how literal is Genesis?” While interesting, are they helpful / distracting?

In general, it’s healthy to be curious about the bible. In 2 Peter 1:10-11, it talks about how: “the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah…”

And sometimes, if you’re reading the bible, and you have a question, and as you look into it, you can pull at a thread which can actually lead you into discovering amazing things. I think there is some value in investigating whether parts of Genesis are intended to be literal or not. And I think it is helpful to meditate on what the bible says about heaven… So we shouldn’t think that certain questions are off-limits.

However, there are some questions that prove not to be very useful to pursue for too long.
Here are four practical tips:

1. Let the bible set its own agenda. Figure out what the bible is trying to say to you, and realise that the passage the passage might actually be to answering a different question to what you’re asking, but that might actually be something you need to ask.
2. Remember how the bible hangs together: Its all centred on Jesus: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ” (2 Cor 1:20). And so if you’re trying to explore some issue in the bible, without also trying to see how bit part of the bible fits into big story centred on Jesus… then maybe you have been distracted.
3. When you’re working through issues with others, beware of majoring on minor issues that just cause arguments: “avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” (Titus 3:9)
4. And finally, be willing to accept that the bible doesn’t answer some of our questions. Sometimes the answer is just “we don’t know.”

And so what I’m saying: Yes, ask the question that is on your mind, but then once you’ve asked it, be prepared that some questions will prove to be dead ends; whereas other questions will lead you into a deeper knowledge of God and what it means to live for him.

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This question was originally answered in our evening service on 9 February 2025. I’ll aim to post another question and answer next week. You can read about how our question box works here.